Not crazy talk for comparison
No, Mookie Betts isn’t better than Mike Trout.
But let’s not act as if the comparison is a profane one, some kind of insult to Trout or just one more example of typical butt-naked Boston media boosterism.
It’s OK to talk about the two in the same breath, the same sentence even.
Let’s try the latter out and see if the Earth tilts off its axis: Trout is the best player in baseball, a oncein-a-generation type of talent, while Betts is one of the best players in all of baseball whose hotterthan-Trout start to 2018 makes it only natural and worthwhile to compare the two, and who really knows about how the rest of their careers will go?
Everyone OK out there? Still standing?
It’s natural for people to feel possessive about their favorite superstar. Trout’s reputation and fan-base extends coast-to-coast, really around the globe, a nod to his feats of shock and awe compiled over the past seven-plus seasons.
A year older than Betts, the 26-year-old Trout began his career with the Angels at the age of 19 when he appeared in just 40 games. The next year began a run of five consecutive seasons in which he won two AL MVP awards and finished no lower than second in any one season.
Last year, he had some injuries and “slipped” to a fourth-place finish while leading the league in onbase percentage, slugging percentage and leading the majors in OPS.
His Baseball-Reference. com page is dotted in boldtype numbers that shout to his epic and historic production. Others did it for longer, like Barry Bonds, but Bonds didn’t produce like Trout did at a young age.
Mickey Mantle started off like Trout at the age of 19, and after his first seven seasons he had assembled a 52.8 WAR in 952 games.
In Trout’s first seven seasons and 941 games, he was “WAR-better” than Mantle: 54.2 WAR in 925 games.
You can understand why Trout is compared to Mantle.
Nobody can say yet for how long Betts will be compared to Trout.
Defensively, Betts is better. But offensively he has yet to have a full season better than Trout, and we know that Betts can’t match Trout’s early-age and earlycareer production.
A year younger than Trout and two years older (21) when he played in his first partial big-league season, Betts, as of this morning, played in 522 games, more than half by not much of Trout’s 941 games.
Just for the fun of it, let’s take the 25.7 WAR Betts produced in his career over the 522 games and see how that would project over Trout’s 941 career games.
Betts’ projected career WAR would be 46.3, while Trout’s real career WAR stands at 55.7.
Betts’ one and only true “bold” year came in 2016 when he finished second to Trout in MVP voting.
Last year, without David Ortiz in the lineup, Betts’ production at the plate slipped some.
Still, let’s get over ourselves if we can’t talk about the two at the same time.
How long will Betts>Trout (circa ‘18) last?
Nobody can say, but after Betts’ three-home run effort Tuesday night, there’s no harm in asking.
Betts is fully capable of finishing with better numbers than Trout, and we know that Trout is capable of the flip-side of that.
But what Betts has done with the small sample size of this season is truly remarkable and speaks to his prodigious talents and stillunknown peak production capability.
This year, with a more aggressive approach at the plate and a true slugger — J.D. Martinez — in the lineup, Betts has gotten off to a blazing start that three weeks into the season has Trout looking up at him for a change.
In two fewer games and 14 fewer plate appearances than Trout (15-17), Betts is one home run (five) shy of Trout’s total, but otherwise he has far and away out-produced Trout. He has scored more runs (1915), hits (21-18), total bases (43-39), with six strikeouts compared to Trout’s 15.
His rate stats are at another level. Betts is at .389/.493/.796 with a 1.289 OPS while Trout is a mere .273/.395/.591 and a .986 OPS.
We know how good Trout has been, and we may be seeing the best of Betts with more to come.
Let’s talk about them both — all the time.